There are flowers and wine, hoeing and farming

Chapter 54

"Hey, what are you doing? Hurry up and come to the front to help." Liu Jian stood at the door of the backyard and shouted: "Hey, are you growing flowers? Can you do it?"

He ran to Qiaoqiao, squatted next to her, watched her loosen the soil, covered her nose, scooped out a spoonful of water from a black bucket beside her, and poured it in: "What are you watering? Uh... vomit... It stinks..."

Qiaoqiao narrowed her eyes with a smile, covered her nose and continued to water a few spoonfuls, then pressed the soil with a shovel.

Standing up and taking a few steps back, Qiaoqiao let go of her hand and took a deep breath.

"It stinks, don't come here, just go, I don't need your help in front." After Liu Jian finished speaking, he walked to the door, jumped into the room in a hurry, and slammed the door shut.

In fact, the smelly water is the rice washing water from a few days ago. After a few days of simple fermentation, it will be very nutritious organic fertilizer, but the smell is not very pleasant.

After arranging the flowers moved from the suburbs and giving them a "full meal", Qiaoqiao looked at the little white flowers with satisfaction, washed her hands and went to do other things.

Boss Hu’s clothes have been patched up for him, and some of them have a musty smell because they haven’t been worn all year round. Now that they’re patched, they can be worn, so she found the big tub for bathing and twisted them. Soaked the clothes in a lot of water, grabbed some alkali and rubbed a few very dirty places, then cleaned them up, fished them out, and dried them in the yard.

After finishing it, she went back to her hut and took out the embroidery samples she bought that day. There were not many embroidery samples in that small stall, only the embroidery samples of this mandarin duck were exquisite and beautiful.

The last time Liu Jian saw him mending clothes, it was justified, but if he saw him embroidering this time, it would be hard to explain. Qiaoqiao closed the door and sat at the window to trace the embroidery pattern carefully.

She sketched halfway, only to hear a slight sound of footsteps coming from outside, as if she was gradually approaching her door, and then stood there motionless, as if she wanted to eavesdrop on what she was doing alone in the house.Qiaoqiao smiled wickedly, tiptoed to the door, opened the door suddenly, and yelled at the person outside.

"Wow..." Liu Jian jumped up covering his ears.

"Hahaha..." Qiaoqiao laughed loudly, pointing at him: "You deserve it, why did you sneak up to my door."

Liu Jian rubbed his ears and gave her a hard look: "I need your help ahead, so hurry over there."

"Oh, okay, I'll go after I pack up." Qiaoqiao turned around and walked into the house. Liu Jiangang just wanted to follow in, but Qiaoqiao stopped: "You go first!"

"What, still mysterious."

Qiaoqiao put up the embroidery pattern and went to the hall. It wasn't time to eat at this time, so she walked up to Boss Hu who was standing at the door of the kitchen with his back to her: "Boss Hu!"

"Oh, here we come." Boss Hu ordered Liu Jian to carry out a bag of grain, called Qiaoqiao and went to the cellar in the backyard.

There are a lot of cabbage, radishes, sweet potatoes, etc. stored here, as well as a lot of jars of wine, large and small, arranged in three rows.

Boss Hu walked over and opened some of the wine jars, and a scent of wine immediately came to his nostrils. Both Qiaoqiao and Liu Jian sniffed carefully.

"It's all empty, and I need to brew some more. Give me a hand, let's brew more this time."

After Boss Hu came up from the cellar, he first went to the kitchen in the backyard. This kitchen was not small, and there were several big pots. They ate in the restaurant in front on weekdays. This kitchen had never been used. After entering, he first told Qiao Qiao lit the fire, and then asked Liu Jian to bring several bags of grain.

Mix the koji that Boss Hu took out into the food, stir it vigorously, and then put it in a large pot to start cooking. After every pot was finished, Boss Hu ordered the two to leave, and stayed in the house alone Observation, no one can replace this step, it needs an experienced brewer to watch carefully, a slight difference and mistake will lead to a difference in the taste of the wine.

At noon, only some residents from the nearby streets came to eat, and it was not too busy. After washing the dishes, Qiaoqiao, who was very curious about the brewing technology, went to the backyard again. Boss Hu was still sitting on the chair watching, he saw Qiaoqiao came in and waved her hand: "Come here."

Qiaoqiao went over: "Boss, are you getting better soon? Are you so tired?"

"It's okay, it's a small matter, go and get me a glass of water, and take the tea leaves from the top row of the first grid."

"no problem."

Boss Hu was drinking hot tea, and started to chat with Qiaoqiao. He kept talking about some issues that should be paid attention to in brewing, including heat, dryness, temperature, etc. It was him who had been brewing for so many years. Different wines don't necessarily taste the same.When we talked about Xingqi, Qiaoqiao thought of a question: "Boss Hu, besides using grain and koji to make wine, are there other types of wine?"

"Other varieties?" Boss Hu frowned and thought for a while, "I've heard that some ethnic groups use other ingredients to brew, but I haven't tried it."

Qiaoqiao thinks of the beautifying wine, and is eager to try it, but the climate here makes it impossible to have this kind of fruit.

"Boss, is there any other ingredients in the brewed wine to make it into a wine with another taste?"

Boss Hu smiled and asked: "You mean medicinal wine? Usually, some medicinal materials are soaked in it, and it is used to rub some wounds on the patient or to drink it for internal adjustment."

Qiaoqiao remembered that in addition to wine, there should be fruit wine such as plum wine, she thought for a while, and then asked: "Then, boss, can we add some fruit and make some wine with other flavors, for example A little sweet or a little sour."

Boss Hu is old after all, and he thinks that the things passed down from his ancestors cannot be changed. He shook his head: "No, this is all accumulated experience over the years, and it cannot be changed casually."

"Oh." Qiaoqiao held her chin, sat next to him and looked at the steamer on the cauldron seriously.

"However..." Boss Hu changed the subject: "After the distiller's mother is released from the cellar, I will reserve some for you before the next step of distillation. If you want to try adding other raw materials, you should do it at this step. Yes, soak for a while longer, and those fruity flavors will definitely be incorporated into the wine."

"Okay, thank you boss." Qiaoqiao began to quickly recall what kind of sweet and sour fruit in this town, adding it, maybe it can become a new variety of fruit wine.

Qiaoqiao ran around the town for a long time, and finally settled on two kinds of fruits, one is peaches and the other is October oranges, but the peaches are shipped from the south, and the price is very high.So Qiaoqiao gave up this kind of fruit that looks sweet and tastes even sweeter, and chose the sweet and sour October orange produced locally.It will be a long time before the release of the wine mother, Qiaoqiao just needs to buy it a day or two before that.

It took a long time to wait for the wine mother to come out, Qiaoqiao felt a little uneasy, but not only because of this reason, because Zheng Cang didn't come, and the cousin who had the cheek to harass her didn't come either, for more than half a month, There were not many soldiers who came to eat during the break. Qiaoqiao went from indifference at the beginning to impatience and worry later. She knew that in this environment and conditions, if there was a war, they would easily die on the battlefield. Not even a dead body could be found.

However, I haven't heard any news of war recently: "You said, why haven't you come here recently?" Qiaoqiao asked Liu Jian.

"It's like this every year at this time. Occasionally, it will not come for many days at once, and occasionally a lot of people will come at once. In the past few months, when the weather cools down and snow falls, it will almost stabilize. That At that time, it was snowing and the wind was blowing outside, let's warm a few pots of wine in the house and drink hot ramen, not to mention how happy it is."

"Is it because the Huo people came to grab food, so we have to be on guard and fight?"

"That's right, those nomads, if they don't have enough to eat, they come to grab them. This happens every year."

"That……"

"Hey, why are you always standing at the door of the restaurant and looking around, who are you looking at?"

"It's nothing, I'm just checking to see if there's any other wars." Qiaoqiao walked into the hall with some embarrassment after being told the main thing by him, sat at the table, and began to peel the garlic.

Sitting in the empty hall, the two were busy peeling garlic and chatting.

"Xiaoqiao, you don't know how to save more money. The wages you pay are used to buy those flower seeds. Do you know that you are so dry, short and small, and you look like a woman?" Looks good, how difficult it is for you to be a daughter-in-law in the future!!"

"Don't say it!" Qiaoqiao replied indifferently, and Liu Jian slapped the table, angry for him: "It can't be like this, a man can't be called a wife, how embarrassing!"

When the two were arguing fiercely about whether to marry a daughter-in-law or not, there seemed to be a sound of horseshoes outside, Qiaoqiao looked at Liu Jian who was spitting, put down the garlic cloves in his hand, and walked to the door in three steps at a time. He looked out inadvertently.

About four or five horses were galloping towards them. Qiaoqiao glanced over and happened to see that the first one was General Li, and the one following him was Zheng Cang.

General Li glanced at her sideways, showing a faint smile, as if to say hello, and then stared straight ahead.

Zheng Cang also looked over, frowning slightly. At such a moment, he took a deep look and left quickly. The sound of trampling horseshoes was only a blink of an eye, and he could not hear clearly.

At noon, there were more than a dozen people scattered, and Boss Hu kept complaining. The target was naturally the condemned Huo clan, because they prevented those soldiers from coming to eat, which directly caused Boss Hu's income to be unsatisfactory.Pulling a few copper coins from people who just ate ramen noodles, sighed, and started talking about it again, raising a group of people in vain.

Master Lu still had a big belly like Maitreya Buddha, eating his meal with a smile, Liu Jian rolled his eyes at most, Qiaoqiao naturally pretended not to hear, and continued to fight against that thin pancake.

In the afternoon, Qiaoqiao was surprised to find that one of the unknown seeds she had planted had germinated.There are sharp and tender green leaves, so small that it is impossible to tell what kind of flower it is, but Qiaoqiao is still very happy, as if she suddenly found the mood that she used to play with flowers seriously at home.She squatted aside and watched for a long time, and did not leave until her thighs felt numb.

"Xiaoqiao, why are you so happy?" Liu Jian asked strangely.

Qiaoqiao raised the corner of her mouth, smiled at him, and continued to wash the vegetables in her hands.

When it was getting dark, the first customer of the night came, and he only ordered the cheapest small bowl of ramen without meat, which cost two yuan in total.

"Today, do you have nothing to do again?" Liu Jianduan leaned against the doorframe boredly after he went out for a bowl of noodles.

"There are few people these days, Boss Hu is dying of anxiety."

"Yes!"

"Hurry up and go to work, stop chatting here, all of them are raised for nothing, how much money I wasted!"

The two looked at each other, Boss Hu, started again.

Master Lu also had nothing to do, so he came out and sat down with them to chat.

"Hey, it's windy. The weather may change tomorrow." Several people had a conversation, and Boss Hu sat facing the door, and was the first to see a little dust rising outside.

The two lanterns hanging outside shook first, and then there was a rattling sound from the cloth, and something was blown over in the distance, and rolled upside down into the distance.

"Hurry up, go and bring in our brand, and those two potted flowers!"

Liu Jian has been here for many years, and he knew the weather for a long time. He jumped up and ran outside, hugging the crooked wooden sign on the ground and entering the house.Qiaoqiao followed closely behind, and also picked up a pot of flowers, but just as she picked it up, a strong wind hit, and sand suddenly entered her eyes, blowing her back several steps.

"Be careful, why are you so frizzy every time?" Suddenly crashing into a firm embrace, the man held her shoulders, blaming with some dissatisfaction and implicit concern.

Qiaoqiao was a little stunned by the wind, she turned her head, barely opened her eyes to see, Zheng Cang frowned slightly, stretched out one hand to block her outside, and then used the other hand to hold her shoulder.

"Brother Zheng Cang..." Qiaoqiao called out to him, but was blown away by the wind blowing up again, she could only hear her own voice dissipated in the wind, almost inaudible.She was startled, and was confused for a moment, and called out his name, but Zheng Cang didn't seem to have any expression on his face, so she probably didn't hear him.

He hugged the pot of flowers for her, picked up another pot, and led her directly into the house.

"It's so windy, why is it just my turn to be off work today, and I want to come out and relax, so there's such a strong wind."

"unlucky."

As soon as the two of them entered the house, a lot of soldiers followed Hulala. It seemed that they all came with Zheng Cang, but Zheng Cang was a little faster than them.

"Boss, is there any wine left?"

Boss Hu nodded hastily, and finally showed some smile: "Enough is enough!"

The wind was very strong, Boss Hu and others walked into the house and closed the door, and the four of them started to work.

They ate for a long time and kept chatting about the recent training. Zheng Cang seemed to have forgotten about her after helping Qiaoqiao. He just concentrated on eating and occasionally raised his head to say something to his subordinates. In other words, he never even looked at her.

Qiaoqiao admits that he is probably not as qualitative as him, and always wants to take a look at him. After several times, when Zheng Cang was talking to someone for the last time, he suddenly turned his head and looked straight at him. Her eyes sparkled like surprise.

"Come here." After eating for a long time, Zheng Cang came to a table in the corner with a jug of wine that was barely left, and waved to Qiaoqiao, calling her to come over.

"Why?" Liu Jian looked at the two of them, stood up and asked.

Zheng Cang ignored him, just poured a glass of wine, and then shouted: "Qiaoqiao, come here!"

Qiaoqiao's body froze, she struggled for a long time, and decided to let it go.

(End of this chapter)